During the spring and summer months, many folks take great pleasure in gussying up their homes — particularly those for-all-to-see front porches — with colorful hanging plant arrangements purchased at home improvement centers and nurseries. This popular, largely seasonal form of outdoor decorating with suspended flora involves a basket of some sorts because, after all, you can’t just hang plants without a pot or some kind of container, right? Right? Well, not quite.

The work of Dutch “string garden” artist/botanist/crotchet enthusiast Fedor van der Valk has been blowing up all over the place in recent months and rightfully so: his pot-less creations, plants — perennials,annuals, shrubs, orchids, and even small trees and carnivorous plants — suspended in midair and supported by nothing more than a series of strings intricately wrapped, cocoon style, around a “root ball” are mesmerizing, magical.

String gardens are one of those things better gawked at (or purchased at a store called Pompon if you just happen to live in Amsterdam) than described with words, so head on over to the String Gardens website to view dozens of awe-inspiring photos of literally dangling-by-a-thread plants and to learn more about Fedor’s technique. There’s also an official String Gardens Facebook page, Youtube channel, and a recent slideshow/interview with Fedor himself over at CasaSugar.

Want to try your hand at constructing your very own string garden? Tutorials can be found over at eHow and at Design*Sponge where the focus is on Japanese style kokedama — hanging moss balls. And if you can get past the thick Aussie accents and cheesy background music, there’s also the below instructional video from Eden Gardens. Have you ever seen a string garden in the flesh or taken a stab at making your own?